No Blood, Some Sweat and almost some tears! OH MY!

Hi! Thank you for joining us for our blog hop for September, 2019.  We are a group of Stampin'Up! Demonstrators from all around the world that want to learn more to progress in our business.  Blogging helps us to learn, connect with people and inspire creativity.  Please let us know if you enjoy our work.  We love hearing from you.

I also want to thank Kylie Bertucci, for putting this Blog Hop together, her training and ability to bring people together and connect is inspirational! Kylie is always there for you!

Yesterday, I decided to work on a Christmas project, inspired by Vickie Kello, and I have to say, at times, it has tested my patience. To create the project, I used the brand new Christmas Gleaming Bundle, the stamp set has matching punches.

Christmas Gleaming Bundle (En) [153006]

I've been working on a Christmas decoration that I've always wanted to attempt to create but never had the time and when I've had the time, I haven't had the mojo! You know how it is, right?

Let me start by saying, I'm not a construction person! I've had a Kaisercraft lazy Susan type craft holder in my cupboard for over seven years and still can't bring myself to start! Well, I thought to myself, 'Just have a go!' So I did! It's not perfect! Not at all! If I were to have it perfect, I would have given up and thrown it all in the bin! Yes! The bin!

You see, it wasn't stamping all the images or punching them out, some images were cut with my Brother Scan N Cut. Scoring them, folding them and gluing them all together wasn't causing me any distress.

In fact, I felt like I was in the crafting Zen zone but it wasn't to last. I was using the hot glue gun with the red acrylic tulle material. (Side note: Kim has never... NEVER!!! used a hot glue gun before!)

At one point, (after I had burned my fingers for the third time and then got hot glue on my table... I had to walk away, like walk out of my room, like out of the unit! Thankfully, my resilience kicked in and I took myself back, determined to conquer this Everest project!

Breathe Kim! That was my mantra! Just breathe! Slowly, my brain worked out how it was to be done (truly, I have no idea how it got done!) so the glue didn't run everywhere or burn my fingers! Like I said, its not perfect! It's my first attempt, but as I would tell my Year One students, "If you don't have a go, you'll never never know!"
I believe in showing and telling you the truth. Not every project works out and not every project is going to be great with your very first attempt.  That's how you learn, that's how you improve and innovate! Here it is!

Will I make another one, YES! In fact, I have already stamped out different coloured baubles and I promise I will share them with here with you.

Hints on constructing my Everest Christmas Decoration. (I can actually say that I conquered Everest! 😁)

1. I would tie the tulle together before trying to glue it.
2. Make sure the glue is hot enough, if its not melted enough... it wont stick the tulle to the paper.
3. Practise making the rosette, it took me a huge amount of time to get it to stay in place so I could glue it. I may have made it too long, it seemed to have a lot of spring.
4. Practise using the hot glue gun so you understand the working of it. I learned that if you use a circling motion after you add the glue to the project, it stops all the wispy threads of glue.

What I would do differently:
1. I would do two rosettes, maybe a white one behind the red.
2. I wouldn't put the little ornaments on every long ornament petal.
3. I would use Wink of Stella on the images.
4. I would make sure the end of the rosette was in the valley not the hill.

To finish:  Add some ribbon on the back with hot glue.

Again, thank you for viewing my blog today. I would love you to comment below if you have time. I hope you enjoyed the blog hop and you got a mountain load of ideas and inspiration! You are currently at my blog - Kim Heath. If you have missed any blogs you can look below and go back and check them out.

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